Thursday Papers: Banks snap up €489bn in ECB loan offer

Top stories

Financial Times: The European Central Bank has stepped up its response to the eurozone crisis by providing €489 billion in unprecedented three-year loans to more than 500 banks across the region.

The Guardian: The ratings agency Fitch has warned that it may downgrade America's triple-A credit rating unless action was taken to reduce federal debt.

The Daily Telegraph: Business is poised to deal the British chancellor a devastating blow over his hopes for growth after a survey from the Bank of England showed corporate spending will account for 0.6% of the 0.7% growth predicted for 2012.

Daily Mail: A fresh round of money printing is on the cards for early next year, the minutes of the Bank of England's latest rate-setting meeting reveal; the £275billion quantitative easing programme was put on hold by the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee earlier this month.

The Guardian: British public sector borrowing, excluding financial interventions such as bank bailouts, fell to £18.1 billion in November, which is £2.3 billion lower than the previous year, as Chancellor George Osborne inched closer to meeting his deficit reduction targets despite mounting fears over the strength of the economy.

Business and economics

Financial Times: Airlines based outside the European Union must abide by EU legislation requiring them to pay for their carbon pollution, Europe’s highest court has ruled.

Financial Times: Fourth-quarter M&A volumes fell 32% to $375.3 billion from the previous three months, led by a 41% decline in Europe; the drop, combined with a pullback in equity issuance amid turbulent markets, contributed to an 8% fall in investment banking fees to $72.6 billion for 2011, against 2010.

Financial Times: Research from Evolution Securities estimates that primary issuance of retail corporate bonds will exceed £3 billion in 2012 – building on 2011’s “watershed year”, in which just over £1 billion-worth of bonds were offered via brokers using the London Stock Exchange’s Order Book for Retail Bonds.

Financial Times: Yahoo is considering a complex plan to shed a large part of its Asian investments that could put a value of as much as $17 billion on the holdings, according to people familiar with the proposal.

The Daily Telegraph: Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously in favour of a Bank Rate freeze; the Bank could keep interest rates down at 0.50% through to 2014.

Financial Times: Bank of America will pay $335 million to resolve US allegations that the lender discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers; from 2004 to 2008, the bank allegedly overcharged more than 200,000 minority borrowers for home loans compared with similar white borrowers.

The Daily Telegraph: Royal Dutch Shell has been forced to shut its 200,000 barrel-a-day Bonga oil field off the coast of Nigeria after up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil leaked into the ocean.

The Independent: The British government has fired the starting gun on its £2 billion train-franchising programme, asking operators to bid to run the Thameslink, Great Western and Essex Thameside routes for up to 15 years; the Thameslink contract from Bedford to Luton via St Pancras is at present operated by FirstGroup.

Financial Times: Ranbaxy of India has set aside $500 million to cover liabilities to settle potential claims in an extended legal dispute in the US, as the generic drugmaker seeks to draw a line under years of problems in its most important market.

Daily Mail: AstraZeneca on Wednesday unveiled a global deal to develop a cancer treatment with Hutchison China MediTech and bought options on a potential new class of diabetes pills from Astellas Pharma.

Financial Times: Mitsui Fudosan, the Japanese property company, has made a move into the City of London office market with plans to build a £100 million development close to Tower Bridge.

Financial Times: Barratts Priceless, the struggling footwear retailer, will close 18 stores before Christmas with the loss of 170 jobs as its administrator battles to find a buyer for the chain.

The Independent: Private security firm G4S has won a £200 million contract to provide "middle and back office functions" for Lincolnshire Police.

Financial Times: Seymour Pierce, the UK investment bank, has been fined £400,000 by Aim for breaching rules in its work on behalf of two clients, neither of which were named; this is the most severe penalty to date issued to a nominated adviser by London’s secondary market.

The Daily Telegraph: The price of sacking someone unfairly is to get more costly in the New Year as the maximum payout for unfair dismissal will rise by 5.6% to £72,300, officials have confirmed.

Financial Times: National Grid’s subsidiary, NGG, which is responsible for four of the eight networks that deliver gas to UK domestic and business users, has been fined £4.3 million for creating delays in tackling gas escapes last winter.

The Guardian: Japanese prosecutors raided the headquarters of Olympus and the home of its former president Wednesday as part of an investigation into the cover-up of massive losses at the camera and medical equipment maker.

Financial Times: Research in Motion’s shares rose 10% on the Nasdaq on Wednesday amid a fresh round of reports that potential acquirers, including Amazon, had expressed interest in buying the struggling Canadian maker of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablet computers.

The Independent: Medical pioneers and researchers are set to receive £3 billion over the next five years from the country's largest health research charity, the Wellcome Trust, as it said it expects its investment arm to continue outperforming.

Financial Times: TripAdvisor shares fell on the first day of trading on Wednesday, closing with a market value of $3.69 billion compared with the $3.72 billion value of Expedia, the travel booking website.

Financial Times: Daniel Mudd, chief executive of Fortress, is to take a leave of absence from the investment company after he was charged with securities fraud in a civil case brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission related to his previous role at Fannie Mae.

The Daily Telegraph: South African tycoon Nathan Kirsh has completed a deal to buy one of London's most distinctive skyscrapers, Tower 42, for £282.5 million.

Financial Times: John Duffield, founder of New Star Asset Management, has claimed a right to reply to allegations made in a London employment tribunal last month by Patrick Evershed, a former New Star fund manager, who sued New Star for an unlimited amount in a constructive dismissal and “whistleblowing” claim in November.

Daily Mail: Shares in Travelzest, one of Britain’s biggest naturist holiday operators, plunged 25% after Canadian rival Red Label Vacations walked away after making an offer that was described as ‘undervaluing the company’.

Financial Times: Solar power companies have won a victory against government cuts to taxpayer subsidies after a High Court judgment that will prompt embarrassment in Westminster.

Financial Times: Mulberry has appointed a director from French luxury goods group Hermès to become its chief executive and lead the British group’s expansion into Asia and the US.

The Daily Telegraph: Thorntons on Wednesday issued its fifth profit warning in 20 months, as a costly store closure programme saw 180 outlets shut and the high street spending slump bit; the company previously forecast a pre-tax profit of £4.5 million for the full year.

Share tips, comment and bids

Financial Times: Credit Suisse has made a first push in its plans to increase earnings from its core private banking operations by agreeing to buy a Japanese division of HSBC, which had about $2.7 billion in client assets under management at the end of October.

Financial Times: Tokio Marine is adding to its string of overseas acquisitions with the $2.7 billion purchase of Delphi, a US insurance group, in a deal that gives it an entry into the world’s largest life insurance market; Japan’s largest non-life insurance group is paying a 59% premium to Delphi’s average share price.

Financial Times: The US Department of Justice on Wednesday said it would require Exelon, the US power company, to divest three power plants in Maryland before approving its $7.9 billion acquisition of rival Constellation Energy.

The Independent: The Scottish clothing group Edinburgh Woollen Mill is among the retailers that will Thursday submit bids to acquire Blacks Leisure, the troubled outdoor specialist which has debts of £36 million.

The Daily Telegraph: Beazley has confirmed that it is considering a fresh bid for Hardy Underwriting, the Lloyd's of London insurance group; the news comes more than 12 months after Hardy last rejected a £181 million bid from Beazley.

Financial Times (Comment): Oil traders today worry mostly about Iran and its relations with Western countries but Iraq, Iran’s neighbour, could be a negative surprise to watch for as far as oil supply is concerned into the new year.

The Daily Telegraph (Comment): Mario Draghi donned his plague suit on Wednesday and urged European banks to "Bring out your dead". But rather than financial corpses it was €489 billion of zombie debt from zombie banks that emerged blinking into the daylight.

Financial Times (The Lex Column): Oracle: cause for concern for businesses and investors that have hitched their financial wagons to the fortunes of the world’s largest companies.

In a poll at the New Model Adviser® conference earlier this year, 37% of advisers said robo-advice would be their biggest threat in the next 10 years. But firms can use automated technologies to help compete

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